Sean Parker, the Napster founder, proposed a new service that would make movies available at home on the same day they hit cinemas – contrary to the reports of major misgivings in Hollywood.

His new startup venture dubbed the Screening Room would offer movies for $50 in the United States, 40% of which will go to compensation to theatrical distributors. According to some reports, studios Universal, Fox and Sony, and cinema chain AMC (the 2nd largest on the continent with almost 350 sites) showed interest in the project.

Hollywood has been considering the idea of maximizing profits from premium home video releases by breaking the so-called “theatrical window” (usually 3 months) for a while now. However, the industry fears to put itself out of business. This window protects cinemas by ensuring films are not available anywhere else while they are shown at theatres.

The new project promises to protect copyright owners against piracy, but how? The developers need a really sophisticated technology to allow thousands of home users access the movies at the same day they launch at cinemas in the era of The Pirate Bay and BitTorrent.

Industry watchers point out that cinema chains have tried to keep the theatrical window in place. For example, when Netflix acquired the rights to the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel Sword of Destiny, 2 years ago and announced the movie would be available to view on release date, 4 major US cinema chains refused to screen the movie. As a result, Netflix had to abandon its plans to show the film in hundreds of Imax cinemas and opted for a small-screen only release last month.

It should also be noted that similar home video service for showing major releases already exists in the United States under the name Prima Cinema. However, this service is prohibitively expensive at $35,000 and can’t be regarded as a threat by cinema chains.

Apparently, the Screening Room hopes to convince distributors that its concept has legs by offering free cinema tickets to its subscribers. Parker hopes that people will visit their local multiplex to view a movie along with seeing it at home, thus boosting cinemas’ concessions trade. But it is doubtful that Hollywood would agree to abandon a lucrative arrangement which has existed since the early days of home video.